Unto Death
by Julchen M. Liddell
Summary: Killed when Elsa struck her with her powers when they were children, Anna's come back as an undead wight roaming the castle halls, knocking on doors and calling her sister out to play.
1. Chapter 1

_ Tick, tock._

_ Tick, tock._

Elsa curled up in her bed, wide awake and trembling under the blankets. She listened to the sound of the pendulum swinging, back and forth, back and forth, counting down the minutes until 1:37 AM. The time _that night _everything had gone wrong.

_ Tick, tock._

The clock chimed. It was 1:30. Just a few more minutes. Elsa wished she could take the spare time to run to her parents' room and beg to sleep with them, trying to convince them she needed the reassurance. But they'd tell her she was too old to old for such things, that she had to keep trying to move on from the recent tragedy, and send her back to her room. Then there was too much of a chance she'd be out in the halls when 1:37 struck.

When that _thing _arrived.

So all Elsa could do was check and double check that her bedroom door was locked tight. She pushed a chair in front of the door as well, because sometimes the lock didn't hold and then all she could do when the thing came in was scream and scream and pray her parents would hear and come running.

_ Tick, tock._

1:34.

The eight-year-old curled up tighter, drawing her blankets up to her chin. Maybe it wouldn't come tonight. Sometimes it didn't, but Elsa was so afraid of the night now she'd taken to wearing her gloves to bed as well, lest she cover her room in frost inadvertently out of sheer terror.

_ "It's part of her coping process," _she'd heard her mother tell her father once. _"She's still having the bad nightmares about...you know. If she's scared and needs to wear the gloves to bed, we should let her. It'll pass eventually."_

1:36.

Please, Elsa thought. Don't come, don't come.

1:37.

Don'tcomedon'tcomedon'tcomedon'tcome-

There was a knock on the door.

Elsa held her breath. Maybe it was one of her parents coming to check on her, just in case. It was a tiny hope, but she clung to it regardless, until...

_ "Do you wanna build a snowman?"_

Her breathing hitched. Elsa suppressed a whimper and pulled her coverlet over her head. Don't let it know you're here, she thought desperately. It'll go away.

_ "Elsa?"_

"Go away, go away," the princess whispered as quietly as possible. "Leave me alone, go away..."

_ "Come on, let's go and play!"_

The doorknob rattled and Elsa felt the temperature in her room drop. The cold didn't bother her, of course, but it sent a stab of terror through her heart.

_ "I ever see you anymore!"_

"Leave me alone," Elsa half sobbed.

The voice on the other side of the door was high and childish, but it was bone-chillingly cold and echoed eerily in the silence. It was also achingly familiar, but at this point Elsa was sure she never wanted to hear it again.

She longed for her sister back, but not like this.

_ "Why won't you play with me, Elsa?"_

Cracking her eyes open, Elsa saw a tendril of ice creeping under the door and cringed. If it managed to unlock the door, would it be able to shove aside the armchair placed in front of it? Elsa herself could barely move it, and it had taken a painful amount of effort to get it where she wanted. The chair was her lifeline, her last hope, and she didn't know what she would do if this line of defense failed her.

_ "Come out the door, Elsa." _The voice took on a singsong quality and the rattling intensified.

"Stop it!"

The lock clicked.

There was a long beat of agonizing silence, and Elsa could hear her heart pounding. The door opened half an inch, but coudn't go any further with the chair in the way. Elsa allowed herself a small sigh of relief. The moment ended abruptly, however, when there came a heavy barrage of loud pounds against the wood. The sound of a small child standing on the other side, angrily banging its fists.

_ "Elsa! ELSA!" _the voice screamed_. "It's me, Anna! Your sister! Let me in!"_

Unable to take it anymore, Elsa shot up in bed and shrieked, "You're not Anna, you're _not_! Go away!"

_ "I am Anna! I wanna play! Let me in!" _

"YOU'RE NOT ANNA!" Elsa choked, sobs rising rapidly in her throat. "ANNA'S DEAD!"

The child pounding on the door continued its tantrum. _"I'm Anna! Anna! Anna! Anna!"_

"YOU'RE DEAD!"

_ "ANNA! ANNA! ANNA! ANNA! ANNA!"_

_ "GO AWAY!"_

_ "LET ME IN!"_

Elsa put her hands to her ears and screamed.

The pounding and echoing cries of "_Anna_!" cut off suddenly as footsteps came thundering down the hall. A moment later, the chair in front of the door was shoved aside as Elsa's father forced his way in, accompanied by her mother. Both looked frantic, and rushed forward at the sight of their daughter.

Elsa flung herself into her parents' arms and let out a hysterical wail, weeping into the king's nightshirt.

"Again?" the queen asked, stroking her pale hair. Too distraught to speak, Elsa nodded, hiccuping.

"It's worse tonight than usual," the king muttered to his wife over Elsa's head.

"We need to do something."

"But what? What can we do about night terrors like this?"

The queen bit her lip uncertainly. "Maybe...we ought to try the trolls again?"

"No," the king replied immediately, setting his jaw. "Considering how they failed to 'help' us last time."

"Last time was different. There wasn't anything anyone could have done." The queen spoke in a tremulous voice, but was composed enough to continue. "Maybe they could do something about nightmares."

"I told you." Elsa recovered enough to interrupt. "I'm not dreaming. She's really coming after me, Mama! It was my fault and now...!" Her eyes welled up with tears again and she took a shuddering breath.

"Shh, nothing was your fault," the queen soothed. "Nobody's coming after you, dear. You have reactionary stress because of the accident, like the doctor said. You're convinced you're seeing things."

"I'm not seeing things!" the little girl insisted. "I-I mean, I am, but she's real!"

"Perhaps it's this room," the king said, glancing around. "Elsa and Anna used to share it together. It might be having a negative influence.

Having no other solution in mind, the monarchs decided to move their remaining daughtre to a smaller room in another wing of the castle. The room was closer to theirs, which they hoped would provide some added security.

Elsa wasn't as hopeful or expectant, but it was better than nothing. Maybe the terrible thing with her sister's face and voice was attracted to places Anna had been familiar with. The wing her new room was in was an area they'd rarely ever ventured into whilst playing together, so maybe if it couldn't find her again it would give up for good.

But the small, fearful, rational part of her conscience told her that it was only a matter of time before the knocks came again.

And nearly a month after the move, they did.

_ "Elsa~! Do you wanna build a snowman?"_

* * *

**A/N:**

** I saw Frozen three times. I'm very pleased with it. Credit for this concept goes to tumblr users NipahDubs and typette. There's a link to my blog on my profile page, and once you're there search 'personal' and you'll know the post when you see it. **

** I might continue this, I might not. I have a lot of ideas for a plot spanning the rest of the movie if anyone wants me to, though.**

** Thank you for reading and please review!**


	2. Chapter 2

The princess of Arendelle, Kai decided, was definitely a strange one. Not that he could blame her, he supposed. Princess Elsa had taken the death of her sister harder than anyone in the castle and that coupled with being cooped up by her parents would be enough to turn any child a bit wonky.

It was a shame, Kai thought whenever the subject rose up in his mind. The princesses had been closer than any siblings he'd ever seen. They'd always be together. But after Princess Anna had fallen terribly ill four months ago and died before her parents managed to get her to a doctor, Princess Elsa had withdrawn. Kai sighed. The whole castle had withdrawn after that. Most of the staff had been let go, the gates closed, and though the king and queen were trying to maintain brave faces, Kai and the remaining servants agreed it was clear the recent tragedy was taking a harsh toll on their rulers. Kai and his wife Gerda had worked in the castle for nearly thirty years, but he couldn't remember such a somber cloud hanging over the place as this.

The older man sighed again and returned to his duties, telling himself he didn't have time to brood. Since the castle staff was now drastically reduced, chores had to be spread out among the remaining handful. It had crossed his mind that perhaps the library needed reorganizing, so that was what he set about doing.

He'd been at it for an hour or so, clearing up clutter and reshelving misplaced books, when he felt the tiniest of tugs on his sleeve. Kai looked down, and was startled to see a familiar pair of somber blue eyes gazing back.

Princess Elsa released his sleeve quickly, folding her gloved hands behind her back.

"I'm sorry," she said, in a tone far too flat and joyless for any nine-year-old. "I hate to bother you, but..."

"It's no bother at all, Your Highness," Kai replied cordially, bowing. "Can I help you with something?"

After a moment's hesitation, the princess nodded. "Yes please, if it isn't too much trouble."

"Of course it isn't. What do you need?"

"Do you know if there are any books about...um, ghosts and things in here?"

Everyone knew about Princess Elsa's nightmares. Kai felt a sharp stab of pity.

"I believe there is a small section," he said. "I just finished cleaning it a few minutes ago, in fact."

He led her over to the narrow shelves in a corner that housed the library's scant supernatural and spiritual books. Princess Elsa thanked him in such a way that clearly told him she'd like to be left alone, and Kai bowed once more and took his leave.

He shook his head as he left. What terrible, terrible shame.

* * *

Elsa was on a mission. If she couldn't get 'Anna' to leave her alone by screaming and running, maybe she could find out exactly what the thing was and if there was a way to be rid of it. Though initially disappointed with the rather pathetic collection of books in the section, she managed to amass a decent pile of ones that looked promising and began to pore over them, hoping to find an answer, or at least something helpful.

One book told of specters and ghosts, plain and straight, but the things it described were just harmless apparitions. All they seemed to do was show up, translucent, for a few moments before vanishing again. Elsa cast this book aside; the few times she'd laid eyes on her nightly terror it had looked very solid, and of course there was the knocking and banging on her door. She'd used the word _ghost _with Kai, but that was so she didn't startle him by asking about demons and any related ilk. Those were the only two descriptions she could think of, and she used the less threatening one. Hopefully it got her somewhere, so she could find something more specific.

The next book described poltergeists, which were a bit closer but still not quite there. They were too invisible, too impersonal. Zombies raised by necromancers were too stupid, and then it turned out demons were typically the type of red, scaly beings that crawled out of Hell. Nothing particularly close to her problem.

Elsa grew frustrated. Geometry and architecture were more her speed, not (ironically) magics and the supernatural and bookwork in general. She was nearing the end of both her pile and her wits when a word finally caught her eye.

_Wight_.

According to the faded paragraph, the word _wight _had many meanings, but the most commonly accepted one was a corpse possessed by a rotting piece of its former soul. Other general definitions, from a linguistic standpoint, were "small person", "unpleasant person", and even "girl".

Elsa's mouth went dry.

_ A dead body possessed by a fragmented soul?_

There was an illustration of the creature as well, an ashen-faced figure with rotting black hands and ice cold eyes, its mouth stretched open in an eternal scream. It looked eerily similar to the child pounding on Elsa's door. She stared at the picture in horror.

"That means...it really is her," she realized. "That thing really is Anna, then."

Her sister's real corpse, come back to play.

The knowledge did not make the situation any better, for there was no description in the book of how to kill a wight. In fact, it made a point that as walking cadavers, they were impervious to physical attack. It wasn't some exorcisable demon or spectre coming to punish Elsa for what she had done, it was her own little sister returning from the grave to torment her. A persistent form of revenge that was going to drive her insane, provided the wight didn't outright kill her itself if it caught her.

Elsa shoved the book away, suddenly feeling very cold, though she knew logically she shouldn't. An intense feeling of panic rose up like bile and despite her gloves and best efforts to contain her powers, frost was beginning to cover her chair and table. It spread across the floor, onto books, crawling up shelves and spiking inwards on the terrified little girl curled up in the center.

That was how her parents found her thirty minutes later, trembling uncontrollably and whispering "I'm sorry," over and over to herself.

* * *

**A/N:**

**To be honest I was probably going to continue even if nobody voted for it. This chapter is just filler, but the story will span from several months after Anna's death (in the space between this chapter and the last, Elsa turned nine) up to the actual events of the movie.**

**I'm taking bets on what you guys think will happen. How do you suppose the story will change? I'll give a prize to the person who was closest by the end. **

**Thank you for reading and please review!**


	3. Chapter 3

"Conceal, don't feel" became the constant mantra for Elsa's life. Her training to become the eventual queen of Arendelle began when she turned ten, and to be an efficient monarch she couldn't have any problem with her cursed powers. What had happened to Anna couldn't be allowed to happen to anyone else, after all, let alone an entire country.

Her father had been very harsh in making that point, even using Anna as an example.

"It can't happen again, Elsa," he told her sharply. He was becoming more and more strict with her, though she'd stopped telling her parents about the appearances of the wight. "It just can't. You know this."

"I know," she replied, choking back tears. The look in her father's eyes softened.

"I believe in you."

Do you? Elsa thought. There didn't seem to be as much certainty in his voice as there ought to have been. Regardless, she understood his point, no matter how much it hurt. She was going to be Queen, whether she liked it or not. If she was going to be a good ruler, and eventually get married and produce heirs, she needed to have complete control. And so it began. Her lessons grew difficult, more intense and comprehensive. She was given progressively thicker pairs of gloves. She saw her mother less and less, only at meals and on occasions where she had to observe a queen in her element.

During the day, with her busy schedule, Elsa had less time to worry about the night. However, the wight seemed to make its visits less frequent. This would be a relief to the young princess, except Anna was beginning to extend her reach to daylight hours, and all around the castle.

Books would fly off shelves in the library when nobody was near. The cook found plates smashed on the kitchen floor, with all the cupboards open and utensils scattered about. Fires mysteriously went out. The grand piano in the ballroom would begin playing itself, but no specific melody; more like a child with no knowledge of music was banging excitedly on the keys. And on one occasion, the king and queen would go to their quarters to find every window wide open in the middle of winter, the bedsheets torn off their bed, and their wardrobe tipped over on its side with the contents spilled out.

Rumors began to fly among the castle staff. Whispers of a demon or ghost haunting the royal family and those around them circulated like wildfire, and though none of them would ever ask the king, the servants grew increasingly apprehensive and wanted an exorcism by the bishop to take place. Curiously, the chapel was the only place within the gates to be untouched by the mysterious goings-on.

Elsa wasn't really surprised. Anna had always thought church was boring, and hated the chapel.

But despite the haunting of the castle, it still appeared that the wight only showed itself to Elsa. Or rather, Elsa was the only one who could see or hear it.

"Do you hear that?" she asked Gerda, as the woman tidied her room while Elsa studied.

"Hear what, Your Highness?"

Elsa frowned at the disruptive sound of little feet thumping up and down the hallway. Anna never showed her face during the day, only after dark when no people were around, but Elsa could still easily hear her ruckus. With Gerda or others around, though, it never caused her much fear. As long as she wasn't alone. "Never mind it. It was my imagination."

* * *

The growing of her powers seemed to make things worse. The wight's antics grew worse and the visits in the night became more intense. Elsa was quick to notice the connection, and with the realization came an instilled sense of panic.

"I'm scared," she confessed to her father, when an outburst froze over a whole corner of her room. "It's getting stronger!"

"Getting upset only makes it worse," the king replied with the tone of a stablehand calming a wild horse. He reached towards her, "You have to-"

"No, don't touch me!" Elsa flinched back. "I don't want to hurt you..."

What if she killed her father too? Her mother? What if they came back the same way Anna did? She'd go insane for certain.

"Then you need to try harder," her father said, the warmth in his voice fading. "No emotion. You can't feel anything. Conceal it."

"Don't feel it," the now twelve-year-old finished with a sigh.

"Don't let it show."

"I know."

The king turned to leave. "I'll leave you to practice, then. Leave the gloves off for a bit and try to control it. Don't frost anything over."

"I know," she repeated. The door clicked shut behind him.

Elsa looked down at her bare hands. Could she really do it? She'd never lasted more than a few seconds, but it was important. She had to get it right. She picked up one of her textbooks, which was frozen solid in less than six seconds. The next attempt with a candelabra lasted seven. Four with a pen.

Elsa grew frustrated, and the air around her chilled. With a sigh of disappointment she flopped down on the floor and stared up at the ice crystals forming on the ceiling. She laid there for a while until there was a sudden sharp rapping on the door.

No gloves, she decided. She was going to open the door without the gloves.

She did just that, and was surprised when there wasn't an adult looming over her like usual. Glancing down, Elsa nearly screamed out loud at what she saw.

Anna.

* * *

**A/N:**

**So it occured to me mid-production of this chapter that my ideas only really extended through the main plot of the movie, and until I reach that point I have no idea what the hell I'm doing. Please pardon the bullshit, hurried backstories until we finally get to the interesting bits.**

**On another note, there have been quite a lot of wight!Anna fics popping up lately, haven't there? The fact that this one seems to be the most popular is actually really amazing to me, thank you!**


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